Leveraging The 'Pokémon GO' Phenomenon

From the first days of the Pokémon GO excitement, I have been watching businesses to see if they would continue to participate and benefit from this game’s growth. As of today, September 30, 2016, Pokémon GO sits at the number three position for top grossing apps on both iOS (App Annie) and Android (Google Play ranking). So, it is still pretty popular.

The thing about Pokémon GO is it represents an opportunity to engage with gamers of all types, people of all types. This game pulled in the typical gamer persona, but also people who were a more traditional consumer. The energy around this game gives you a chance to study how augmented reality technology could work as a marketing tool in other areas of business. The impact of Pokémon GO, despite a slowdown and lower ranking in the app stores, is still being measured and felt. Game maker Niantic Labs is still fixing bugs and tweaking the game and its future is still bright.

“… I foresee something similar happening with Pokémon GO. This game is only going to get better, and Pokémon GO has a long life — and a hell of a lot of revenue — left in it. Those that stick around will get gradual improvements, and people who come back up for new waves of Pokémon will find themselves with a better, more addictive experience than they had before. We already have a buddy system, we’ll hopefully get nearby tracking back soon and someday we might even get multiplayer battles or, who knows? Maybe a single-player progression. We could, ideally, end up with a Pokémon GO that has an actual endgame — something to do with all those Pokémon you catch. Some more fleshed out monetization wouldn’t hurt, either.” –David Thier

Part of what this viral sensation demonstrated is that merchants are way savvier, and move much faster, than in years past. Because so many of us are now operating on mobile devices, in general, merchants and marketing types were able to figure out grassroots ways to create fun and catchy (forgive the pun) campaigns. Basic web and social searches reveal that plenty of merchants are actively advertising or posting news about their business serving as a PokéStop or Gym.

As in life, the more you engage, the more you experience, so it is with business and the latest technology. Sure, there are risks you could over-invest in trends like Pokémon GO, but building a relationship with real people, your customers, is never a bad thing. And while some might claim that video games separate us from reality and from one another, there are plenty of examples of how people were interacting with one another in positive ways around the game experience.

Retailers jumped into the game in a big way and the team at Revel Systems, makers of an iPad Point of Sale (POS) system, collected data from their retail customers to give me some insights into what local businesses are experiencing with Pokémon GO. Quick aside: You have likely seen this elegant POS system in cafes or retail locations where a standard iPad is facing the clerk and a smaller iPad Mini is facing the customer so that you can see the transaction details. The data comes from August, but conversations with merchants shows that there is still plenty of interest and opportunity.

Of that 82%, customers with PokéStops nearby increased their weekly foot traffic by 9 percent

Customers who benefited saw an average increase in weekly gross sales of $2,013; a little over $287 average increase in daily gross sales.

265 was the average increase in weekly customers, or an average of 25 new, daily customers.

Also in August, Slant Marketing produced a terrific post and helpful infographic about what Pokémon GO could mean for your business. Their research revealed that players in the game are like nomads, often wandering into a store or shop for the first time while using the app (over half 51% surveyed said this). 86% report visiting a restaurant, 47% visited a café, 38% went into a grocery store, and many of these were local businesses, not national chains. That alone presents an opportunity for many of the world’s businesses.

Because I have been asked for marketing advice around this game, and I am far from an expert, my favorite posts and tools from research that offer solid how-to advice for building marketing campaigns or outreach efforts that attract Pokémon GO fans are listed here, but in a nutshell: Be authentic and build real-life relationships. Pokémon GO still has a lot of life left in it.

One of the more thoughtful (after-viral) posts on Pokémon GO that I have read came this week from Forbes contributor Michael Humphrey: Beyond Pokémon Go: Marketing Via Augmented Reality Will Be Complex. It is three pages long, but well worth the read; Lots of great stats from a recent study by firm Emerging Insights that surveyed 400 U.S.-based Pokémon Go users from ages 14 to 55+.

The Yelp app has a great search filter: PokéStop Nearby. So wherever you are going to eat or shop, you can combine your excursion with some “catching.”

“Don't worry, Pikachu: The game is still holding strong at number one in the Android charts, and it's only dropped to the third position on iOS. Moreover, there are still around 30 million people playing the game every month — and that's just in the US. But since the game exploded in popularity after launching in early July, the decrease in players is seen by some as an apocalyptic sign.”

I write about new technology, often hardware, gear, and 3D tech, but sometimes mobile and the cloud. I like to help small and midsize business owners and execs figure out how to use these tools to grow their businesses.